Saturday, 29 September 2012

Article - Theatre for holistic development - Ambika Kameshwar

Ever since I was a little girl I was exposed to the wonderful art forms
of dance and music. I always got so much from them that I believed
strongly in dance and music being far more than ‘merely’ performing
arts. Structured dance and music and their performance is, I believed,
and believe, only a part of the whole. For me, in the movement of
the trees, the leap of the deer, the prancing of the waves, in the
laughter of children, in the tears of the afflicted and expressions of
the proud parent…In every single movement of the universe, there is
dance and in every single sound there is music.

My belief would have remained a belief, but for god giving me
opportunity after opportunity for reinforcing my belief and helping me
structure dance, music and drama into a methodology that does not only
result in performance but goes far deeper seeking and fulfilling every
developmental need of an individual. From 1982, when I started working
with the visually impaired children at Ramana Maharishi Academy for the
blind, Bangalore and in 1985 when I volunteered to teach dance and music
to children of Spastic Society of India (now Vidya Sagar) till I
started Rasa – Ramana Sunritya Aalaya in 1989, I found fulfillment in
structuring and documenting the new methodology of holistic self
development which I first called C.M.E. (Creative Movement Education)
and later changed the term to T.H.D (Theatre for Holistic Development)
for it covered the scope of the methodology more fully.

1 comment:

Great endeavour; an indispensible need of the present. I am extremely glad to note that in India too such beginnings have been made. May be there are more such researchers, but unfortunately we lack sufficient published documented evidences with scientific structuring, in the areas of research related to "Art at the applied level". Those working in the said areas may kindly refer to the subject, 'Neroaesthetics', to which Dr. V.S. Ramachandran (U'versity of Chicago) has made commendable contributions. Lot more could be done in education and health care.